The Week of Wolfsbane
by LupinMyOneAndOnly
Summary: When Voldemort punishes the werewolves who refused to join his side, Lupin leads a group of injured werewolves to Hogwarts. An AU by virtue of impending HBP.
1. Harry, 9:00pm, Saturday

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Harry, 9pm.

At first, affairs in the Gryffindor tower were quite typical for a Saturday night.

As usual, Hermione stood alone in the middle of the crowded common room, tapping her foot impatiently. Her insistent shouts of "Harry! _Ron_!" could be heard even above the boys' noisy search. Harry fleetingly wondered whether Hermione had placed a _sonorus_ charm on her foot, since the sole of her shoe was emitting an audible tap despite the thick scarlet-and-gold carpeting. "Only Hermione would spell her shoe just to make a point," Harry muttered under his breath as he ran his hand between the wall and his bookshelf. He came up with a handful of dust, but no cloak.

"Blimey, Harry, if I owned anything as expensive as an invisibility cloak, I'd keep a closer tab on it," Ron huffed, throwing a pile of dirty shirts away from Harry's bed. "No wonder Hermione insists on keeping the map in her room. It'd look like just another scrap in this mess, and some house elf would have tossed it _years_ ago."

Shouts of "Harry, Ron, please hurry up and do whatever you're doing!" began to filter up through the open dormitory door. Harry could distinctly hear Seamus trying to convince Hermione to "please, just stop, my ears are falling off," and exchanged a rueful look with Ron before diving back into the mess that was the boys' dormitory.

Three minutes later, his hand brushed against a familiar soft cloth buried underneath his bedsheets. "Got it!" Harry held the silvery cloak above his head with an expression of triumph.

Ron dumped the armful of books he was holding onto the floor and jumped to his feet with a grateful sigh. "Finally. Now let's go down before Hermione's _foot_ falls off." Harry stuffed the invisibility cloak inside his robe and nodded wholeheartedly. The tapping had increased in both pitch and volume, and both Harry and Ron walked down the staircase with their hands covering their ears.

Hearing footsteps, Hermione's foot stopped its movement halfway to the carpet. The few people who hadn't fled the deafening noise gave small cries of relief, sending grateful looks toward Harry and Ron as they approached Ground Zero. "Took you long enough!" she exclaimed, brandishing a familiar piece of old parchment like a weapon. Pulling the boys into a curtained corner of the common room, Hermione's hands flew to her hips in frustration. "We have a D.A. meeting in _two hours_," she hissed, looking around to make sure they couldn't be heard.

"Two hours is a long time," Ron muttered.

"Not if we actually want to be _prepared_, Ronald."

"It's winter break, _Her-mi-o-ninny_," Ron told her, faking a bad Bulgarian accent. He earned only a scathing glance from Hermione and a surreptitious kick in the ankle from Harry.

"So, Harry, what do you have planned for tonight?" Hermione asked cheerfully, turning away from Ron, who was sulkily ignoring Harry's attempt to make him shut up.

"_Mobilicorpus_. Thought it would be necessary during battle, to move the wounded," Harry replied promptly-- the last time he hadn't thought of a proper D.A. subject ahead of time, Hermione had barely restrained herself from physically beating him. "Bit more accurate on bodies, levitation can backfire and send someone too high in the air. And," he added with a sly grin, "we can always mention a little story about Snape and the _dangers_ of _mobilicorpus_."

Hermione tapped her chin in thought. "_Mobilicorpus_ would work, I suppose, especially if Voldemort decides to attack Hogwarts and there are plenty of injured students." The name, so often avoided by wizarding-folk, rolled easily off her tongue, but Hermione could not seem to supress a small shudder at the thought of their beloved Hogwarts under seige.

"Let's just hope it doesn't come to that," Harry answered grimly. Privately, he thought that Voldemort would have to win control of Hogwarts if he wanted to truly decimate the Order of the Phoenix; the school was the safest place in Britain as well as the home of Albus Dumbledore and many of his most powerful associates. Which, Harry thought ruefully, possibly included himself, at least in Dumbledore's mind. After all the mistakes he had made over the years, Harry wasn't sure he merited the esteem that Dumbledore had granted him, but …

Hermione gave a little sigh, breaking into Harry's reverie. "I wish we had a way to practice _ennervate_. I imagine _that_ would be more useful, but short of knocking people out, I don't see how we can do more than theoretical work. It wouldn't help our side if the D.A. manages to incapacitate half its members."

"Mobilicorpus will at least get people out of the way," Harry argued, and both Hermione and Ron nodded in agreement. "We haven't done as much of this stuff as we have hexes and curses. If we're going to practice it, though, maybe we can get the room of requirement to produce padded floors and walls, just in case." Almost every student fourth year and up, including the D.A., had stayed over break to attend Dumbledore's Holiday Ball, and Harry intended to put the time to use.

Ron grinned maliciously. "Don't want anyone's head to scrape the ceiling, do we?"

All three laughed at that, savoring the memory of Snape's head scuffing the rough surface of the Shrieking Shack's tunnel. With a final chuckle and a quick furtive glance around the common room, Harry raised his wand to the map in Hermione's hands, uttering the password set so many years ago by the Marauders. It wasn't curfew yet, but the Room of Requirement was a closely guarded secret of the D.A. As far as Harry knew, none of the Inquisitorial Squad who had invaded the room had been able to find it again, and he meant to keep it that way.

"Hallways clear?" he began to ask Hermione, who had suddenly clutched the map in both hands. "Hermione, what's wrong?"

"Front gates," she answered in a quiet voice, pointing to a section of the map at which the trio rarely checked. The boys' heads snapped toward her instantly. Raising her gaze from the old parchment, she stared at Harry, worry sunk deep within her eyes. "Professor Lupin is at the front gates, with others." Indeed, a series of unfamiliar names floated eerily above the ink-sketched gates, clumped together in a huddled group.

"Dumbledore," Harry breathed, and all three of the students broke into a run toward the portrait hole.

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Author's notes: Sorry about the boring introduction chapter. Really.


	2. Hermione, 9:07pm

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Hermione, 9:07pm

Hermione watched in horror as the gates slowly creaked open; the hands that pushed the metal bars had left bloody streaks on the shining surface. The headmaster had expressly forbidden the three students from leaving the main doors of the Hogwarts castle, but had revoked his ultimatum as twenty-two injured figures began to lurch through the silver gates. Professor Lupin had approached Dumbledore immediately, favoring what appeared to be a very broken left arm, and had muttered a few hasty words to the headmaster before turning back to assist his battered group.

"I trust you know how to conjure stretchers by now," the old wizard had remarked, still gazing after Professor Lupin, though simultaneously creating several with a sweep of his wand. "I daresay I might need your assistance," he added, with a glance at the group of newcomers.

Hermione tried not to sob as she turned her eyes toward Professor Lupin, who gave her a weary thumbs-up with his good hand. Most of the people were adults, but a good few seemed to be younger than Hermione herself. All were dripping blood from various cuts, and several of the children were being carried by tottering adults who could barely support their own weight, let alone another's. With a forced smile, she approached an exhausted looking young woman with blood-matted blonde hair who was balancing a tiny girl against one hip. "Let me take her," Hermione offered, carefully coaxing the child out of the woman's arms.

"Thank you," the woman whispered gratefully in a hoarse voice. Ron, who had deftly ripped his outer robes into long bandages, handed her a few strips, and the woman began to wrap the cloth around several long, deep cuts on her forearm. Still supporting the child, Hermione managed to shrug off her own robe and tossed it to Ron, who answered with a weak grin.

"Professor Dumbledore," Hermione said softly, as she gently helped the small girl onto a sturdy blue stretcher. The child smiled weepily at her, and a quick flick of Hermione's wand transfigured a rock into a small stuffed rabbit.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" Most of the incapacitated were now floating several feet above the air, with the less injured clinging to each other for support. He looked up, then, and Hermione saw the alarm she was feeling reflected in the old man's blue eyes, and realized that she was slowly losing the battle to hold back the tears that had been threatening to fall. "Miss Granger?" he repeated, much more gently.

"Where are we taking them?" Ron interrupted loudly, clumsily floating two stretchers ahead of him toward Hogwart's stone steps. Several feet away, Professor Lupin steadied a man with a vicious gash in his leg as Harry transfigured another rock into a rough crutch. All three of the men looked up questioningly at the headmaster.

Dumbledore paused, his seven polka-dotted stretchers hovering motionless in front of him. "Infirmiry?" he murmured to himself. "Poppy would, but-- oh dear, it would be compromising, wouldn't it? Perhaps an empty classroom—"

"The Room of Requirement," Hermione volunteered softly, still stroking the top of the little girl's head. The child's tears were slowing, and she now clutched a handkerchief as well as a pink rabbit.

"Excellent idea, Miss Granger, a most discreet solution. Poppy will be needed, and perhaps Severus, also." With that, Dumbledore motioned his stretchers forward, with the others following close behind. "Keep quiet, and hope that there are not many students milling in the hallway."

Harry's wandless hand dived into the pocket of his robes, and emerged holding the map. "The entrance hall is clear, sir, but the staircase to the third floor is packed."

"So many students staying over break; perhaps I shouldn't have scheduled that ball," Dumbledore remarked to himself, almost wistfully. Dumbledore raised his wand and shot a silver streak into the air toward Professor McGonagall's office window. Within seconds of the spell's collision, her booming voice could be heard ordering all students to return to their common rooms. "That should take care of it," he said, sounding rather pleased with himself. "The ability to abuse administrative powers often comes in handy," he added with a wink toward Professor Lupin, who raised a bloody eyebrow in acknowledgement.

The group slowly and quietly walked up the four flights of stairs to the Room of Requirement, though several stops were taken to provide more stretchers for those whose injuries proved to be too extensive for the climb. Once everyone was inside the room, Dumbledore shot a second messaging spell into the corridor, and Professor McGonagall's _sonorus_-enhanced voice released the students from their captivity.

"Well!" Dumbledore turned to the bewildered, bloody, exhausted group with a wide smile. The room instantly lengthened, and rows of beds appeared against each wall. "Welcome to Hogwarts. Please, do make yourselves comfortable."

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Author's note: Another day, another chapter. Please review! I'd really like to know what I could do to improve my writing.


	3. Remus, 9:31pm

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Remus, 9:31pm

The first few confusing minutes were spent shoveling the wounded into bed, silently assessing the extent of injuries. Lupin, with the help of Harry, managed to hop onto a cot without jarring his shattered arm too badly. Smoothing the sheets back, Harry gave him a worried, anxious look before turning to help the others.

Such clean white sheets almost seemed like a joke, Remus thought to himself as he gazed at his battered companions. Especially after time spent among Death Eaters.

While everyone was being settled, Dumbledore had apparently slipped silently out of the room. Within minutes he returned, with both Madam Pomfrey and Severus Snape in tow.

In the doorway, both Snape and Madam Pomfrey stopped abruptly, and even Severus seemed stunned by the scene. "What in Merlin's name happened?" Madam Pomfrey gasped, almost indignantly, as her pale eyes swept over the rows of groaning patients. "Albus, when did they- where did they-"

Dumbledore turned to Remus, his head inclined in deference to the former Professor. "Just now, Poppy. Remus, if you would enlighten us…"

With a small grunt, Remus raised himself on his good elbow and managed to sit up. "The Death Eaters have been collecting werewolves," he informed Albus quietly, struggling to school his voice into sounding professionally detached. "Some have gone willingly, but most were abducted. They are planning to insert us into Muggle communities during the full moon. Those who didn't join him were punished," he added, gesturing around him at the other occupants of the hospital beds. "We managed to escape, but there are others…" He turned to look at Dumbledore, who had been listening intensely.

"The Order will be informed," Dumbledore told him quietly, and with that Remus sank back down upon his pillow with a relieved sigh. The throbbing in his arm was beginning to cloud his thoughts, he supposed, because he was suddenly having a lot of trouble concentrating on what the Order would do to help the others.

Remus heard Madam Pomfrey shake her starched skirts furiously; he remembered vaguely that she had done so even when he had been at Hogwarts, after his transformations at the Shack, and knew that her face must be tensed in a terse, controlled smile. "Well! I'll get to work." Walking briskly to the opposite wall, she opened the door to the Room of Requirement, and a full cart rolled in, pushed by five struggling house elves. Reaching for a thick roll of bandages, the nurse quickly began repairing his arm and began wrapping his forearm from wrist to elbow in a sling of gauze. Remus blissfully closed his eyes as the pain dissipated from the cracked bones.

Hermione's voice drifted into his hearing from somewhere above his head. "Madam Pomfrey?" She sounded hesistant.

"Yes, dear?" Madam Pomfrey replied in a tight little voice. Little cuts on his face were sealing themselves up, now, with the familiar prickling sensation that accompanied rapid skin growth.

Glass clinked, and upon opening his eyes, Remus saw that Hermione had selected a clear vial of blue liquid. "If it would be alright, I could tend to some of the smaller cuts, so you'd be free to handle the big injuries …" Her voice trailed off as she glanced toward the other beds.

Looking up sharply, Madam Pomfrey's quick eyes flew to the glass vial in Hermione's hands. The old nurse's face instantly relaxed into a genuine smile. "That would be excellent, Miss Granger. Quite excellent. You _do_ know your potions, don't you, dear." Pointedly ignoring a snort from Severus, who was also raiding the cart of potions, she pointed to a stack of fresh cotton pads and began to instruct Hermione on the proper way to treat small wounds.

He hadn't thought that Hermione would turn Healer, Remus thought dreamily, though he wouldn't have been surprised if prominent experts in every field of study were already beginning to battle over her apprenticeship. But his eyes flew open in alarm as another thought suddenly occurred to him.

Sitting up quickly, he inadvertently knocked Madam Pomfrey's wand away from the nasty gash she was healing on his shoulder. Ignoring her cry of "Remus _Lupin_!" he reached over to grab Hermione's wrist. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked worriedly, voice low, hoping with all his heart that this would not be necessary. He didn't think it was, but he knew he needed to ask. "We're all _werewolves_, Hermione, and you'd be handling our blood- if there's any risk- "

Hermione's free hand was immediately at her hip, reminiscent of Molly Weasley, though she lacked the quintessential spoon that Molly often shook at stubborn Order members refusing to _get to bed before you fall asleep on your feet, do you hear me?_ "We all know that the condition can only be passed along through a bite during the full moon. Professor, you taught us better than that," she answered tartly, though Remus's blurring eyes could see her expression soften. "Now just relax, Professor," she told him, replacing his arm gently upon the hospital bed with a comforting pat.

Harry had come up behind her during his tirade, another blue vial in his hands. He sent a rather stern glare toward Remus. "Don't even worry about that," he whispered fiercely. "I know you do, but don't." Unlike Hermione, his hand upon Remus's arm was not gentle; Harry clutched at him with a desperation that worried Remus. "Believe me."

Remus smiled back at his two former students- friends, actually- and watched them warmly return the favor. James and Sirius used to say that, too, Remus tried to tell them, but his eyes were closing and soon he was asleep.

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Author's note: I removed the pairings from the summary. I don't want to put anyone off reading, just because they don't agree with the choices I made. This story is going to have romance, but the war will not magically disappear.

Please review! And thanks to my two readers on alert, I love you very much. Really, I do.


	4. Author's Notes and Short Chapter

I'm sorry this hasn't been updated for so long. This year has been quite busy. I still have the outline I began to make for this story, and if anyone is still interested, I'll post it here.

And so that this technically won't be an "authors note without a chapter, or one or two liners," I'll add something here. I don't want this deleted by Granger sat in class, looking thoughtfully at the blackboard. "I wonder if this counts as a real chapter," she said to herself, tapping her pencil on the wooden surface of the table.

Ron snorted. "Only Snivillus would send complaints to he replied. "Git."

"Twenty points from Gryffindor!" Snape snarled.


End file.
